Summit Communications: Mr Minister,
you have a very impressive Curriculum: you
completed a PhD in economics in the United
States, you worked for The African Development
Bank and then, you were called by President
Joseph Kabila to take many responsibilities
in different ministries here in the DR Congo.
Could you tell us what have been the highlights
of your career and your different responsibilities
within the Government?

H.E. André-Philippe FUTA, Minister
of Finance: Thank you, It is true I had
studied in the United States and obtained
a PhD in economic reform programs. I was
teaching when I was called back to Africa,
at the African Development Bank, where I
started my professional career as a development
banker. From there I managed to climb all
the hierarchy ladders from a simple expert
to a director level. When President J. Kabila
called me and appointed me as Minister in
his first cabinet, I was indeed anxious
and frightened by the challenge. The overall
picture was not so clear and it looked like
I was taking risks to come to a country
where the president was assassinated and
the political system itself was not known.
But I came and took the challenge, certainly
moved by the desire to bring my knowledge
and experience back to my country because
I had been away for a long time. When I
arrived, the country itself was in a big
confusion in terms of democracy, economic
management and economic development. So
the most important thing which came to me
and my colleagues, as the first challenge,
was to convince everyone to undertake drastic
reforms and establish a market-oriented
economy. It was far from easy to convince
everyone but we had a group of 6 ministers
and we did our best to persuade the government
to undertake reforms. Among other options
we adopted to have a floating exchange rate
system. This also meant to rely on the private
sector and smoothly minimize the role of
the government in the production circuit.
Meanwhile, we had decisions to take and
modalities to follow; we tried to constantly
apply a more practical management. And finally
the first program put in place went so well
that the IMF and the World Bank decided
to assist us. Together, Matungulu Mbuyamu,
the then minister for finance, General Kalume
Numbi, the then minister for planning, Jean-Claude
Masangu, the governor of the Central Bank
and myself were given the opportunity to
play a great role concerning these reforms.
We can claim to have been the fathers of
the new economic programs that we are putting
in place now. And we did so well that we
managed to stabilize the macro-economic
framework, especially the inflation fell
from 500% to 100% and the exchange rate
was stabilized for a long time around 240
Congolese Frank for a dollar. The IMF then
accepted to assist the government in reforming
its economical programs. At that time I
was in charge of the ministry of economy
and my colleagues of finance and planning
were forced to resign. So the President
gave me the responsibility to manage the
program. That was the period between November
2002 and June 2003. I was the minister for
economy, in charge of overlooking the finance,
and at the same time I was also the minister
for planning. So you can imagine how determinant
my role was in the area of the economic
management. Plus the fact that I was the
one negotiating with the IMF and the World
Bank. This was the moment of my life when
I have been the most busy. Fortunately,
during that time things went so well that
finally, we have been admitted by the IMF
in the contest of Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries, The HIPICs programs.

Summit Communications: Coming back on
Congo's economy, you said earlier that there
were numerous sets of reforms in 2001. Can
you explain the strategy adopted by the
Congolese Government to comply with the
requirements of these international institutions
such as the IMF and The World Bank?

H.E. André-Philippe FUTA, Minister
of Finance: Of course, we underwent a number
of reforms from 2001. As a government, we
had to show to the world that we were determined
to undertake reforms. The first signal came
by putting in place home-made reforms programs.
We had already indicated to our partners
that we wanted to make changes and we had
to do so. We also used some kind of political
deals to show openness to other political
forces to integrate those outside the system.
By doing so, we indicated to the world that
the then government (the former government
of J. Kabila before the peace deal was signed
in 2002) was determined to bring changes
in the political order and as well as in
the economic front. All these were part
of our strategy. Finally, we knew that among
our external partners, the most important
were the IMF and the World Bank, so we concentrated
on those. Because we knew that when succeeding
with them, they would be able to convince
others. We thought that our multilateral
partners could easily convince the bilateral
partners to join us and that was what happened.
As an example, the Paris Club, a group of
French businessmen, allowed us to have some
kind of debts rescheduling.

Summit Communications: Everyone we have
interviewed agrees on one thing, that you
managed to make of Congo a "platform
of growth". What were be the main achievements
that the government of transition has done
so far?

H.E. André-Philippe FUTA, Minister
of Finance: The transition government has
laid down the foundation for growth. We
have given to the country a new code on
forestry, a new investment code, as well
as a new mining code which will provide
incentives and opportunities for any investor
to come. And in the area of fiscal policies,
we have reorganized all our fiscal system,
including the customs and the administration.
In general, we have prepared the ground
for economic investors and private sectors
to work. We are in a process of facilitating
investment by the private sectors. If we
bring peace, elections and new political
order -which means if today we get a new
constitution and if tomorrow a new electoral
law and after tomorrow elections are being
held- it will be a big achievement for this
government, in addition to what we have
achieved on the economic front.

Summit Communications: How do you see
foreign investments in the development of
the DRC ?

H.E. André-Philippe FUTA, Minister
of Finance: We have just to create the appropriate
environment and foreign investments will
be attracted. But there is no automatic
response because even though we have done
good things in having new investment code
and done big efforts trying to review our
judicial and our legal framework, people
are still looking at where we are heading
to. Politically, we have not organized the
elections and we are lacking a new system.
So any investor is still observing. The
foreign investment is not a factor which
responds immediately; it depends on many
factors such as the social, psychological
and political elements of the country.

Summit Communications: What are the
needs of the DRC in terms of foreign investments?

H.E. André-Philippe FUTA, Minister
of Finance: Everything is found in our economic
policy statement. In short, we think that
Congo is a big country and one of our constant
issues is the infrastructure. We need good
roads, railways, ports and good telecommunication
systems. So, the infrastructure remains
our most important priority. We think that
once we provide good infrastracture, we
will also create a good environment for
the investors to come. That is why the World
Bank granted us $450 million, among which
60% of that will be allocated to infrastructure.

Summit Communications: You have managed
to stabilize the economy and restore the
fundamentals, and yet there is a pressure
on the inflation. How do you hope to break
the vicious circle of the inflation and
maintain a stable rate?

H.E. André-Philippe FUTA, Minister
of Finance: Of course, we managed to stabilize
the inflation up to December 2004, but now
in the last three months, we have been going
through some turbulences with high rate
of inflation as well as some kind of instable
foreign exchange market. That is because
we had some problems in the East and the
government was not expecting problems of
security in that area. So, we had to make
some military expenditures which were not
foreseable and that contributed a lot to
the disturbances that we have been experiencing.
Also, in different institutions people have
not stopped travelling inside or outside
the country. As a result we had to make
more expenditures. All these facts derailed
us on our path to stabilization. But we
are doing exactly what needs to be done.
The first measure we took was a budgetary
restriction policy to deal with this problem,
and now we are just spending what we have.
We are also working with the Central Bank
to try to drain back most of those liquidities
which are in the market. So, the Central
Bank is doing its work and we are doing
ours; and I guess that things now are stabilizing
because we came from 525 down to 514 Congolese
Francs to a Dollar, and I think we are going
to stabilize at 500 FC. We have to apply
a very big service discipline to the way
we are managing the public finance. In addition,
if our own domestic private sector can trust
the system, this will help. If they can
take the right initiative into the right
direction, then economically I think we
can manage the opportunity for growth.

Summit Communications: You have the
Central Bank in one side and you still have
a lot of needs in the private banking. What
is the space for those private banks and
how do you see the private banking taking
off from here?

H.E. André-Philippe FUTA, Minister
of Finance: We encourage the idea of getting
our own banking sector, once rehabilitated
or renovated. We have experienced a period
during which there wasn't any bank functioning,
so we decided to liquidate 3 of them. But
we wish to get some other banks coming.
The problem is that for them to come, we
have to create a macro-economic framework
which also gives confidence to those who
are coming. This means a stable Congolese
currency, so that one can build a bank on
it. I think that is the first condition,
as no-one will set up a bank on an instable
currency. It is important for us to manage
to stabilize the micro-economic environment
first, which will provide support, and then
finance the private sector.

Summit Communications: As a final question,
where do you see the DR Congo in the next
five years?

H.E. André-Philippe FUTA, Minister
of Finance: I am very optimistic about the
country and I think that it will be very
powerful once we get the political question
solved. I don't see any problem with the
Congolese economy five years from now. In
fact, I think that we will have a very good
profile in terms of economic growth and
market: we will become a very good destination
for most of businesses in Africa or worldwide;
mainly because we have human resources,
the manpower and markets for mineral resources
or natural resources. Five years from now
this will become a big market and a big
economy in the Center of Africa. That is
what I foresee.